REGULAR A Fair Day’s Pay
In the wake of the BCC’s recent accreditation as a Living Wage employer, PR and Media Manager Lee Baker discusses the importance of an honest day’s pay, and how something as simple as a fair wage could even help to prevent a revolution.
After supporting the Living Wage campaign for a number of years, The British Cleaning Council has recently been accredited as a Living Wage employer.
It’s a great honour to officially be in the fold, as this campaign is set to grow over the next few years, with many more companies now admitting that low pay is an issue which is affecting them in ways they hadn’t previously considered.
The Living Wage Foundation work tirelessly to promote fairer pay, and through reasoned argument and quiet diplomacy they have gained huge public recognition as well as cross party support.
The work they do is extremely important and it is an honourable cause, but I suppose the question must arise as to why we need a body like the Living Wage
Foundation, and why should companies with tight margins, think about voluntarily paying their employees more?
The truth is that wages have been falling for many years, with the recent recessions and banking crisis only making matters worse. Some capitalists will say the market should always determine these things, but others argue that there is now an unhealthy gap emerging in society between the very rich and everyone else, with those at the bottom suffering disproportionately.
US billionaire Nick Hanauer, who gained his fortune through investment in Amazon, has been very vocal in the States about how
inequality between the super rich and everyone else could lead to a tipping point that could bring violence, or even revolution.
Hanauer says he is still a
capitalist, but claims the system is broken, and argues that if wealth inequality carries on like this, our society will lose its middle class and revert to a more feudalist society, the kind, he says, existed in 18th century France just before their revolution.
Another idea that follows the same track is ‘The Spirit Level’ by Richard
G. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. The
book argues that societies which
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are more equal will almost always do better. It claims inequality brings ‘pernicious effects’ to societies, in the shape of mental and physical illness, anxiety, drug abuse, obesity, violence and so on.
Nick Hanauer is arguing more from a standpoint of self interest, as he wants to save the capitalist system from itself. The Spirit Level comes at the problem from a more ethical position, but both have the same conclusion, that growing inequality in our society is bad, and could lead, at best to slow growth and stagnation, and at worst to violence and even revolution.
It explains in part why groups like Living Wage Foundation have emerged now, to shake us out of our apathy and remind us that if something is wrong in society we need to address it before the situation gets out of hand.
The BCC has recognised this problem and argues that there are robust ethical and pragmatic arguments for the Living Wage.
Research by the Council has
found that paying the Living Wage, particularly in London, can reduce staff ‘churn’ and also absenteeism, which can save companies huge amounts of money. In addition, they found that paying staff a fairer wage helps to promote better morale, which in turn leads to better productivity.
The cleaning industry cannot sort out all of society’s ills, but by taking a lead on an issue like this, can show it can be on the right side of the argument.
www.britishcleaningcouncil.org
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